A arquitectura do direito à cidade. Entre a densidade urbana e a condição de habitar

Abstract

The present dissertation aims to be an open process of understanding the wider dynamics of our current condition and the way we build the city. We point towards directions of a continuous and non-linear search of the processes and developments of thinking and creating the city. About specific cities and the global problems. About the necessity of (re)imagining for architecture a social and political role towards the construction of the city and of its possibilities. Can architecture have a role in the fight for the right to the city? Can urban density, designed for the people, be a tool to address the ever growing world population and its concentration in big cities? Can architecture be the 'link' in this process? Be the mediator of the quality of life in cities that feel ever more exclusive? The present wanderings between habitat and inhabiting, between the urban condition and the human condition, between urban density and quality of life, try to inform a project-of-city that aims to be critical, active, open and collective.